Experts urge action to stop animal diseases infecting humans

Scientists have called on governments to take urgent action to prevent the emergence of new zoonotic diseases—ones that jump species from animals to humans—in the wake of recent fatal outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), believed to have been transmitted by civet cats, and avian flu from birds.

Experts told an international conference on zoonotic diseases hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva on 3 to 5 May that over the past …